The primary (and best) reason to digitize museum collections is to share them with the public on the web. PMM’s photo archives staff has been hard at work for the past year getting to know Kosti Ruohomaa’s photographs through this process. Since he worked under the umbrella of a photo agency for most of his life (Black Star Publishing in Manhattan), the collection is most meaningfully grouped by his professional assignments: those he was given and those he conceived himself and pitched to them. It’s interesting to observe that many of the “self-assignments” were studies of particular aesthetic and cultural themes which the photographer circled back to repeatedly throughout his career.
Beginning in January of 2021, we’ll use this page to showcase a few new assignments each month. Please check back here to further explore the captivating work of this iconic Maine talent. Click on any of the thumbnails below to open that group of images in our online database.
James River, VA
One of Kosti Ruohomaa’s assignments for Life magazine in 1945 was to travel in a boat along the James River, in Virginia. He took a variety of photos, including cows drinking from the river, ivy-covered historic homes, Historic Jamestown, and his bow-tie-wearing guide.
Rehabilitation — NYU
After seven months in the army, 19 year-old Bernard Berger of Yonkers, New York, injured his knee while jumping a wall on a training course. “For young Berger, that was the end of the war. While his buddies were sailing overseas to European battle fronts, Bernard was heading for home.”
Ice Fishing
Ruohomaa venerated traditional skills and lifestyles. His study of ice fisherman provides a brief glimpse into a treasured cold weather pastime. These environmental portraits show the fishers and the private worlds of their ice shanties, which are sometimes luxurious enough to include bunks and small cookstoves.
Emily in Wonderland
Kosti Ruohomaa made several photo series illustrating the fun children have in the countryside. In this series, Kosti focuses on four-year-old Emily Burns, exploring the countryside for the first time at Henry and Eleanor Laxson’s dairy farm in Millford, NH.
Herring Weirs
Kosti Ruohomaa documented the herring fishery from every angle over a number of years including 1953, 1957, 1958, and 1960. He photographed the boats, fishermen, and nets.
Rehabilitation — Halloran Hospital
In the winter of 1944, Kosti Ruohomaa took a series of photos of volunteer craftsmen providing art therapy for wounded soldiers returned from World War II, in a program organized by the Red Cross.
Barns—Pennsylvania
Kosti Ruohomaa’s interest in folk traditions, historic structures, and rural life came together in a study of Pennsylvania barns he did for Life magazine in 1944.
Parade—Large Family
In the early 1950s, Ruohomaa visited two burgeoning families in rural Maine, including Therees and Lloyd Brooks, who were raising 12 daughters in an old schoolhouse.
Town Meeting—Enfield, New Hampshire
Kosti Ruohomaa documented several town meetings all over New England, and not only captured democracy at work, but also the variety of people in the town, the weathered faces of the hard-working folks that he loved to focus on. In this series, Kosti documents a particular controversy being discussed at the Town Meeting of Enfield, New Hampshire in 1954.
Hands Across the Border
Kosti Ruohomaa took a series of photos illustrating the connections between the people living in Calais, Maine, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, just across the border in Canada. Kosti included images of the institutions that serve both communities like the Chipman Hospital in St. Stephen and the Calais Free Library.